CBS Beefs Up ‘Alternative’ Programming

The network expands on its “alternative programming” lineup with “Kid Nation.”

CBS is adding a little spice to its lineup, with new shows featuring vampires, singing casino workers and a “Lord of the Flies”-esque reality show.

“For those of you who accuse CBS of being too conservative, I think you’re going to think differently,” CEO Les Moonves told reporters this morning after the new schedule was unveiled. Perhaps the most intriguing of the new arrivals is “Kid Nation,” a reality show — or, ahem alternative programming, as the networks like to say — about 40 children who spend 40 days in a town without parents. And, planned for later in the TV season, “Swingtown,” a show about, you guessed it, suburbanite wife-swappers in the 1970s.

In other comments, Mr. Moonves continues to be confident his TV network will squeeze advertisers to pay for viewers who watch shows on TiVo or other digital-video recorders. “The key is DVR [viewing] will be counted,” he tells reporters at a press confab to present CBS’s fall TV season. Mr. Moonves was far less forthcoming on questions about Katie Couric‘s ratings woes at the “Evening News.”